Untitled Part 1

Chapter 20: The Imperial City

I apologize now because this is a pretty long chapter, but I hope you enjoy it! ^-^ Remember to give me your opinion, both constructive and honest. I plan on continuing this, but I need help with a title. Let me know what you think in a comment. Thank you and enjoy!
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-Prim's POV-

It's been about three months since I met and got to know Kai, and we got along quite well. I was honestly surprised that I could actually be with someone and not have them get killed. But my nightmares kept returning, making me question if the events that displayed themselves would become reality sooner than I feared.

"You okay," I was called out of my thoughts as I looked up at Kai, his face holding slight concern. I shook my head and smiled, letting him know that I was fine. "Well, okay... just be sure to finish your meal, yeah? I'd hate for it to go to waste," he said to me before biting into his green apple. I simply nodded my head and ate the few berries that were in my hand, letting the acidic taste stay in my mouth a little longer than normal while spitting out the seeds.

When I was done, I pulled out a map of the country, seeing the paper had been marked on and crinkled in the past by me. Getting out my journal, I told him to come over here and to help me pick the next city we would hide in. He finished his apple before walking over to me, looking over my shoulder and throwing his apple core away as he studied the map carefully.

"Personally, I'd pick a place where it's both hard and nearly impossible to track people, and that's a pretty long distance from where we're at," he said with his finger and thumb on his chin, his eyes both memorizing and analyzing the map. "There's one problem with that though," he admits as he looks into my eyes, "We'd have to go either out of the country, or find a place where there's a very small population and no internet or government access. Both are seemingly hard to do, considering the country's mass population and the fact that most of the land has become nothing but cities and government sites." I nodded my head, looking at the map and trying to figure out the best, and safest place for us to be. After a minute of thinking, I wrote down in my journal where I thought we should go:

Why don't we go to a nearby city? I know of one where they would accept me and when you told your story, you too. It's about a 3-4 days walk from here though, so we'd have to be careful. And don't worry, I have a group of friends that I consider to be my family there. It's been a bit since they've seen me, and I'm sure they'd be more than happy to see me again.

I handed him what I wrote and he gave me a confused look. "Why would we put your friends in danger," he asked me, still looking confused. "And if it's that far, then I would suggest going in the opposite direction. It would only be a half a days' walk if we were to go now." I thought about this, sitting crisscross, putting my finger and thumb on the bridge of my nose as I sat still.

Thinking of time passing, I nodded my head to his statement. He smiled and folded up the map, handing it to me and getting our things together. Carefully, I put away the map and my journal, making sure my book bag was both in order and light. Standing up and seeing him ready to go, I sighed through my nose and dusted off my pants. I checked my bandages to make sure they were clean and in place, while also checking if my clothes needed to be changed. Smiling to myself, I put my hood up, covering my shoulder length hair and nodded at him to let him know I was ready.

With a smile, he said to me,"Let's get going, yeah? I know someone in the city that will take care of us, and he is pretty chill, so that makes it easy for us to recover and get more supplies." I nodded at him and pulled at a chunk my hair, giving him a questioning look. He looked at my hair and said, "He'd a barber, so he can cut your hair, if that's what your wondering."